Metis Identity - A Source of Rights?
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The Atlantic Experience

In the middle 1600's it was already clear that most of the Acadian families, were of mixed blood. They were, even in their own time, distinguished both from the Micmacs and the immigrating French and later English settlers. At least 47 families at Belle-Isle-en-Mer, for example, were identified via detailed genealogies as being mixed blood, not only in a physical sense, but as evolving a distinctive cultural identity derived from that fact. It is thought that the Malacites, as an identifiable group, were descendants of the mixed blood children of Saint-Malo fishermen and Indian women.

Following the defeat of the French by the English some Acadians, in the mid 1750's were "deported" back to France, some were assigned to a penal colony in the Falklands, some to Louisiana where we now have another pocket of Métis heritage in the United States--the Cajuns. Others fled north, and west to the St. Lawrence Valley, and to the Upper Great Lakes around the Sault area. As one of the first "Trail of Tears" the expulsion of the Acadians is faithfully recorded in history, but the role of "metissage" in that process is played down by historians on every side of the issue.

Again, the point should be made, that although it is unlikely the term "Métis" was ever used by the Acadians in 1750, their communities match all of the indicators we will lilisted earlier in this paper. The descendants of Acadians would appear to match all of the criteria we are considering for identification as MÈtis under Section 35(2).

The New Brunswick Metis and Non-Status Indian Association, in a report to the Native Council of Canada in 1984 concisely stated the situation of the MÈtis population of the Atlantic area.

"There is abundant evidence of the intermingling of white and Native peoples in the Atlantic region, all during the period of intensive Treaty negotiations between the British and Eastern Indian Tribes. There were definitely two sources of the mixed blood population during those years;

(1) The intermarriage and not-so-formal unions of French Acadians and Canadians with their Indian neighbours - producing one of the first "Metis" populations in Canada and,

(2) The intermingling of British captives with their Indian captors - producing one of the first "half-breed" populations in Canada."

We will return to the Atlantic experience in the section on post-Red River Métis communities to examine to evolution of the Métis people of Labrador.

The St. Lawrence Experience

As the Acadians were developing their culture, their community and, from my point of view, their ìMetisî nation --a similar process was developing further up the St. Lawrence. In fact here we see the short-lived, but self-conscious attempt on the part of the French to create a new race. Intermarriage between young Frenchmen and Indian women are not only accepted, they are financially encouraged with special dowries or grants of land, a technique later adopted by the English as well. The original plan was to "Frenchify" the Indians. In fact, the reverse happened and French officials became alarmed at the rate (up to 40 percent in 1680) their young men were disappearing into the woods with their Indian lovers.

In what is now Quebec, the process of metissage certainly produces a distinct population, but the cultural identity of that population becomes coloured by a francophone ideology, particularly after the military domination of Canada by the English. Although the local community life of the Québecois is still very much in the tradition of metissage, the public expression of that life on a regional --and later provincial-- level is masked by the necessity to use the more obvious, and palatable, French genealogy as a defense against angloization.

Thanks to the reports of the Jesuit fathers in the new world, we can certainly pinpoint one of the earliest sources of metissage in what is now Ontario. Etienne Brule, who traveled with Champlain to the new world at the age of 16 and was sent to live with the "savages," found his new life very much to his liking. As the thousands who followed him also discovered, the so-called "savage" life had many charms, including female companionship.

The Upper Country Experience

Fueled by an expanding fur market and rumours of copper, exploration pushes its way into to the upper great lakes area in the 1620's and by 1654 a meeting of Halfbreeds of the area is recorded. Even European historians make it pretty clear that Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie have large populations of Halfbreeds. Given that the French and English and later the Americans take turns "occupying" the area in the name of their Kings, Queens and Republics in the early and middle 1700's, it's not surprising that neither side pays much attention to the fact, until 1763, that the only permanent population in the area are the Indians and the mixed bloods.

For a century the Métis of the Sault built their nation on the economy of the fur trade, and their military alliances with both Indian and colonial forces, when it became necessary to defend their homeland against the English and later the Americans.
 

The Changing Status of Métis

During the 1700's the extended kinship network of the mixed-blood community held the balance of power both economically and militarily across the whole northwestern frontier. It is in 1775 and in 1791 that we see the first use of the term Halfbreed in print in North America.

The phenomena of a maturing generation of mixed bloods on the continent was creating an increasingly significant factor in White/Native relationships. Reaping the harvest of an expanding fur trade, Halfbreeds spread outward from settlements and trade depots into the upper Great Lakes and the northwestern hinterland of western Lake Superior and Red River country. Only occasionally interrupted by futile licensing regulations and periodic calls to battle against the Sioux, the French, the Iroquois, or the English --depending on the time and circumstance-- the mixed bloods harvested their livelihood from their homeland.

Identified as Indians by most non-Indians and as Whites by many non-whites, they took their place at the crossroads of frontier society. Many who lived with their Indian brothers became spokesmen and chiefs of their tribes. Others, raised in the shadow of their fathers, became traders, clerks, farmers and small businessmen, with another handful receiving full education and leading their communities as missionaries or military commanders. Wherever Whites and Indians met, each naturally turned to the mixed bloods in their communities to conduct the trade, negotiation, or alliance.

The growth of a new mixed blood population was paralleled by a maturation of smaller native-born White population . The growing body of permanent settlers generated a steadily increasing conflict between themselves and their respective European Crowns. That conflict centered around the acquisition and ownership of land and the issue of sovereignty of new and old world peoples. At the heart of the conflict were the sovereignty and property rights of Native Indian people and their mixed blood relatives.

In almost direct proportion to the demise of the military and political significance of Indians in colonial life, there was a corresponding rise in the influence and significance of mixed blood populations on every level of frontier society. The political and economic survival of growing settlements was, in reality if not officially, dependent on a thoroughly entrenched kinship network of mixed bloods. Trade, military security, Indian relations and exploration were simply impossible without mixed blood or Halfbreed co-operation.

The Indian Department, see-sawing between civil and military control, relied on a network of "beloved menî --most of them mixed bloods-- to develop and maintain workable relations with Indians. The Johnson and Claus families practically controlled the Department and were, themselves, responsible for several hundred mixed blood children. Many department officials were half or quarter bloods and played major roles in executing policy.

On paper at least, the Hudson's Bay Company controlled the vast area of Rupert's Land. Most of its employees were mixed bloods by 1800 and as events at Red River were to prove, the company was entirely dependent on mixed blood co-operation. Trade and transportation of goods were, in practice, the domain of the Bois Brule and the Voyageur, most of whom were mixed bloods. The families of these hardy men were the majority in all but the largest settlements. Those the Bay couldn't or refused to employ became the core of the competing companies or established independent businesses processing food stuffs for the trade.

The Balance of Power

Although often snobbishly belittled by aristocratic commissioned officers and European army regulars, mixed bloods held the balance of military power for decades in colonial conflicts. They fought Sioux and Iroquois to a standstill. Allied with the French, they defeated the English; allied with the English, they defeated the French and Americans; and allied with the Indians, they scored victories over the English and Americans. Often fighting in coherent units, or as leaders of Indian units, they were a decisive factor in every major military engagement of the century.

A proud and powerful, resourceful and skillful people, they had every expectation of taking their rightful place in the new nations that were forming in the "new" world. As the lifeblood of the frontier economy, the muscle of the colonial military, and the diplomats of White/Indian statesmanship, they played a critical role in the evolution of North America up to 1800. The result of two centuries of adaptation, a new race verged on the formation of a new people and a new nation in a new world. However, as the events of the previous half-century had victimized the Indian people, the following fifty years were to do the same to the Métis.

The Métis and Halfbreeds of the Red River area had, as we shall see briefly in the next section, succeeded in establishing a social, political and military presence in their homeland, but their brothers in other parts of the country were not faring as well. While the flag of the new Metis Nation flew proudly in Red River, two major developments were unfolding in the east which were to jeopardize the position of mixed blood peoples there. The first was the decline of the fur trade and the second was the end of the Johnson era in the Indian Department. Just as dealing with Indians on an equal basis had deteriorated with their decline as a military factor, the decline of mixed bloods as middlemen had a similar effect.

With the decline of the fur trade and the amalgamation of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay companies in 1821, came a re-organization of the fur trade. Accompanied by his hew white wife, George Simpson, the newly appointed head of the Company had twice the men he needed to operate half the number of trading posts formerly operated by the two separate companies. Having a low opinion of Halfbreeds to begin with, he cheerfully began cutting mixed bloods from the Company rolls. Apart from terminating, in some cases generations of employment, this also had the effect of depriving the former employees of retirement homes and lands --which the company technically owned.

With the death of Claus in 1826 and the retirement of Johnson in 1828, the Indian Department underwent a similar re-organization. As the emphasis in the Department shifted from the alliance and pacification of Indians to their civilizing and Christianization, the "beloved men" of former days were no longer necessary. By the time the Department came under permanent civil control, it was more concerned with keeping costs down than with keeping promises. Economic criteria had all but replaced military concerns in White/Native relationships and the position of the mixed bloods became increasingly ambiguous.

Fearful of the effects of the new policies, a rash of Indian Grand Councils were held during the period to defend land rights and maintain their traditional relationship with the Imperial Crown. Supported by pro-aboriginal White organizations and often led by educated mixed bloods, these councils -- the forerunners of today's Native organizations -- petitioned governors and the Crown itself to counteract the new policies and assert their own rights. For the first time the specific issue of mixed blood was formally recorded from an Aboriginal perspective.

A general Indian "Council in 1836 raised the question of Halfbreed membership in the tribes and decided that:

"...if any man or woman, being a half-Indian, wished to become part of, or attached to any tribe, he or she
shall be claimed, and in every respect considered as belonging to that tribe...

The Indian Department attitude toward Halfbreeds was epitomized by its Chief Superintendent, Head:

"...the breed of Half-Castes would give a great deal of trouble to the Government if they had anything to
claim under strict Treasury Regulations.

The 1840's saw a decade of commissions and investigations into Indian Affairs in general and the Indian Department in particular. Although little specific information about Halfbreeds was included in the Commission's reports, it was recommended that Halfbreeds not living as Indians should be excluded from presents. Considerable attention was given to "squatters" on Indian lands and ways of removing them and paying compensation for improvements. The fact that most of these so-called squatters would, in fact, be mixed bloods was not mentioned --but the effect of this policy on mixed blood dwellers on Indian land was soon to become only too evident.

By the end of the decade the administrative and logistic problems of the Department were eclipsed by a Halfbreed "uprising" in the Sault area. Reports of boulders of solid copper in the Upper Great Lakes had triggered a rash of speculative prospecting and mining on unsurrendered Indian lands. Indian and Halfbreed complaints and petitions around the issue were repeatedly ignored and a few mines began extraction.

Determined to assert their rights and with some expectation of exploiting the resource themselves, the local Natives organized a token resistance. With cannon stolen from a Hudson's Bay Company post, the expedition "captured" the Quebec Mining Company's mine at Mica Bay in a bloodless coup. The Montreal Gazette of November 27, 1849 reported 150 persons killed and 80 prisoners taken. Shocked into action and disconcerted by the realization the "culprits" could not be convicted, as the courts had no jurisdiction on unsurrendered land, authorities hastily began negotiations for a treaty in the area.

In an unconnected, but simultaneous event in Red River, the Métis had once more taken up arms. Angered by increasingly severe restrictions on fur trading, several hundred armed Métis surrounded a courthouse where three of them had been charged with smuggling furs. Although the judges --including Cuthbert Grant-- registered a conviction, no sentences were ordered and the jubilant Métis knew they had successfully challenged the Hudson's Bay monopoly in the West.

Although troops were hastily dispatched to both areas, no shots were fired at anyone. It was obvious now, to all sides, that the mixed bloods were a factor that had to be dealt with. The effect, if not the intent, of subsequent policy was to drive a legislated wedge between so-called full-blooded Indians and so-called half-breeds. The fact that this was, in biological terms often impossible, only briefly daunted legislators of the time. The trick was to define Indians in terms of Indian relationship to Indian lands. The following year colonial governments began legislating definitions of Indians and their relationship to land. The rest, as history was to prove, would take care of itself. And it is precisely that history which serve as a warning about the impact of external definition.

There is at least one Métis community which developed at roughly the same time as the Red River community, but experienced a very different set of relationships with Canadian governments. This was the Métis community of the Northwest Angle, more commonly known as Rainy River in northwestern Ontario. This was the only group of Métis people to sign a formal post-confederation Treaty with the federal government. The Halfbreed Adhesion to Treaty Three of 1873 is much too complex a process to be dealt with here in any detail, but it is particularly significant in the context of this paper.

It is significant because it is an ìofficiallyî recognized Métis community which existed outside Red River. The term Métis is actually used in the French version of the Treaty. It also demonstrates that scrip was not the only mechanism by which the federal government tried to deal with the Aboriginal title of Métis people in the 1870s.

The fact that government reneged on the terms of the treaty after the execution of Louis Riel should surprise no one. The treaty beneficiaries were later forced to identify as Indians to maintain their relationship to Treaty Three, and those who refused were forced off the reserves set aside for them.

The Western Experience

As he had earlier in Prince Edward Island in 1803, and in Ontario in Baldoon, the Earl of Selkirk manipulated a large grant of land and established a colony in Red River in 1811. Following a traditional format, his colonial governor unilaterally legislated hunting and trade restrictions on the local population to support the struggling colony. The resistance of the population, who considered themselves the masters --if not the owners-- of the area was predictable and in 1816 Governor Semple and twenty of his officers and men fell under the guns of a breed of men variously called Halfbreeds, Bois Brule, or Métis.

The Battle of Seven Oaks, (described as a massacre from the White perspective), was a clear demonstration that indigenous, mixed blood populations were prepared to fight for their rights. The subsequent actions of their leader, Cuthbert Grant, clearly indicated that they were prepared to, and capable of, participating in and contributing to the progressive development of their communities.

It is important to note that the establishment of the border between British North America and the newly formed United States of America was a considerable inconvenience to the major settlement of Métis in the area -- which happened, in 1780, to be Pembina. To the consternation of Hudsonís Bay Company and Catholic Church officials, it was discovered, in 1823, that Pembina was, in fact, south of the new American border. Anxious to preserve both souls and furs from Americanization, Pembinaís church and school were moved north of the border to White Horse Plain to a new community being formed by Cuthbert Grant called --to no one's surprise -- Grantown.

The Métis resistances led by Louis Riel in 1870 and 1885, are well known and will not be dealt with here. It is only necessary to point that these actions were not isolated or unique. In fact, they are but two of many attempts on the part of MÈtis populations in Canada to assert their rights as distinct, indigenous, Aboriginal peoples.

Given the socio-economic, historical and political identifiers listed above, it evident that there were scores, if not hundreds of historic communities which --by whatever names they were called at the time-- would be called Métis today. Maps in various publications give some indication of scores of these communities and where they existed.

I hope I have established a historical background of the process of metissage in Canada and identified some of the key communities and peoples who most affected by the process. With that information in mind we can now leapfrog into the present and look at some of the modern communities who are the descendents of the historic process I have just described.

Paradoxically what various Metis communities all have in common, is their differences. That is, they have different origins, have experienced different forms of development, and are seeking various forms of accommodation. As a result they have also all experienced difficulty in being recognized as valid and viable communities of Aboriginal people who call themselves Métis.
 

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